Richmond Minority Decision Criticized By Congressman

February 17, 1989|By SEAN SOMERVILLE Staff Writer

HAMPTON — A New York City congressman said Thursday that the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to strike down Richmond's affirmative action plan was absurd in light of the state's history of discrimination.

Major R. Owens, a Democrat from Brooklyn, attacked a decision that places the burden of proving discrimination on minorities, saying the state's past denial of equal rights should be enough to prove discrimination.

"How can you ever become a contractor if you're forbidden from being a tradesman?" said Owens, who added that blacks in Virginia had long suffered discrimination in the workplace.

Owens made his comments at Hampton University on the first evening of the Seminar on Public Policy and Its Impact on the Underclass sponsored by the National Association of Black Journalists. The seminar, which will run through Saturday, includes 21 journalists from around the country and a panel of expert speakers.

Owens, who represents what he said is the eighth poorest congressional district in the nation, also criticized federal policies for instituting the "oppression of the poor and the swindling of the middle class."

He said the multibillion-dollar savings-and-loan rescue was an effort to "cover the losses of incompetent and corrupt banks." He criticized a $4-billion drought relief package, which he said had no means test and helped wealthy farmers.

In contrast, Owens said, the government's failure to boost the minimum wage and increase money allocated for welfare was creating a huge underclass.

The line between the middle class and the poor was becoming thin as a result of tax and Social Security reforms that took money out of middle-class pockets, he said.

Owens was the last of four speakers Thursday night who sought to define underclass. The opening speaker, Douglas Glasgow, author of "The Black Underclass," said the lack of economic opportunity and the failure of institutions such as schools were responsible for widening the number of poor people without opportunities.

Michelle Kourouma, executive director of the National Conference of Black Mayors, said the conference should broaden its definition of the underclass to include rural poor scattered throughout the south.

Sylvester Monroe, a correspondent for Time Magazine who grew up in a Chicago housing project and went to Harvard University, urged reporters not to consider the underclass something foreign. He said they should listen closely to the problems and concerns of those they write about.

All of the speakers and journalists seemed to agree the black middle class should play a role in helping black poor people who seem trapped in a cycle of poverty.